The Blue Bolt
by L.Q. Brooks
Summary: Book 4 of 7. After the underlanders came, and Swordneck died fighting the roarer, nothing has quite gone back to normal. But when a bunch of kids with electrical powers appear, their lives are more in danger than ever. Rated T for brief language. LOOK OUT FOR "MARK OF THE WOLVES" TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
1. A Place to Hide

1. A Place to Hide

The questers weren't doing too well. Aurora and Ripred had to go into care, and they took Swordneck's body and propped it up against the wall so he could always watch them. It had been an exhausting few days for them, and all they wanted was a good night's sleep. It was about 7:15 by the time they ended the Battle of the Roarers, and they were all tired. Aurora and Ripred fell asleep immediately. Nike was sleepy, but she managed to keep her eyes open to keep watch over the others. Howard was right beside her, and they were both comforting each other.

Manny and Ellie slumped onto the cold hard ground, with Peaches and Sarah trying to get warm by laying down next to their warm fur. Lapblood just leaned up against Ripred's prophecy while staring at Swordneck's dead body. It was all too much. She had tried to commit suicide after her mate, Mange, died. Speaking of Mange, Lapblood began to wonder why Luxa had left Hazard behind. Luxa, Julien, and Hera sat next to each other and about their crazy day. Luxa seemed to read Lapblood's mind when she said, "I should have brought Hazard. And my grandpapa. To keep them safe."

Howard chuckled and snarled. "Luxa, Hazard and Vikus would not have survived this battle." Luxa became surprised and glared over at her cousin. "What on Earth do you mean? They have survived many battles, even though their loved ones had...perished," she said, slowly starting to sob. "That is my point. What about Hamnet and Frill? And Thalia and Solovet?" Luxa stopped sobbing for a moment, thought about what Howard had said, and got quiet. "I'm going to sleep," Manny told the others. "Okay. I will keep watch," Nike said, using all her strength to stay awake. "You guys have been in way too many battles," Ellie informed them, softly laughing. Julien shrugged and nodded. That was the last thing Manny remembered before he drifted off into sleep.

* * *

The dinosaur's roar scared Scrat a little bit, but it didn't stop him from his journey. He quickly traveled over to the Big Smelly Crack (he chuckled when he remembered the name) and began to jump down. When he got to the other side he traveled up to the cliff where Buck and Beetee had disappeared. It took a few moments to realize that the nut was where the dead bodies were. He gulped, closed his eyes, and jumped off the cliff. He screamed the whole way down. It took maybe thirty seconds to get to the bottom, and when he landed, he landed on something rock hard. He opened his eyes and saw the dead body of Becker. He shrieked and ran behind a tree. He then came upon Stepsura's body and he jumped, knocking his head into the tree. He heard a clinking noise, then another giant acorn fell, breaking into two halves. Scrat made a squeaking noise in surprise as he read the second couplet.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE FOUND ME  
THE THIRD NUT HANGS IN A CHRISTMAS TREE

He sat down and thought.

* * *

"Manny! Manny! Wake up!" The mammoth quickly jumped to his feet, but as soon as he did, he did the splits and fell toppling down. "What the, what's going on, Wiress?" "I don't know! I just woke up and found this!" He looked around, and found the walls completely covered with ice. Suddenly he figured out what was going on. They were being attacked again. "Evacuate immediately! Go! Run!" he commanded. They all ran with Manny close behind. Aurora and Ripred were carried by Manny.

"Look! Here's a small cave made out of snow! It looks sturdy enough!" Sarah yelled. Manny was reluctant, but said, "All right, everyone go in! I'll go in last to see that everyone gets in safely. Ellie! Place Aurora and Ripred on the ground and come back for them. They can survive the cold, but not for a long time. Hurry!" he barked. His wife did as she was commanded and soon everyone was inside. Manny followed his wife's footsteps into the igloo. When they were inside, Ripred and Aurora started to wake up. "Wait...this isn't our walls. What happened?" Aurora asked, blinking her eyes open.

"There's a blizzard and it froze the walls, making it unsuitable to wait in. So, we found this igloo. But no need to fret. Hush, Aurora. Go back to sleep," Luxa soothed her, stroking back her fur. The bat didn't pull back, but instead fell asleep immediately. Ripred, however, did not fall asleep quite so easily. "So, what will we do if we get another prophecy?" he asked. Manny was silent, then admitted, "I don't know." Ripred thought about it for a few seconds, shrugged, and fell back asleep. Lapblood looked at him. She was reminded so much of Mange.

* * *

Scrat was freezing. He had just entered the Ice Age part of the...Ice Age when the blizzard began. He was desperately looking for a place for home. He tried to keep his mind on the prophecy, but that just made him more stressed. The thought of letting all his friends down over a stupid acorn...was pointless. Killing Manny without even realizing it...he assumed it was up to him to save the world. But that's what prophecies will do to you. Turn you into power hungry fools. That's just how it worked. You, of all people, should know that.

* * *

Lapblood was silent all the time since Swordneck died. It should have been her. She remembered, again, of how she tried to commit suicide. She would be with Mange, with Hamnet, and Frill, and Swordneck. Her pups, probably even more people, had all perished, and it seemed to be because of her. Yes. She had to be with her family. Reluctantly but still going for it, she shivered and ran out into the blizzard. "What are you doing?" Beetee coughed, "come back!" The rat stopped, turned to Beetee, shook her head, and continued out.

Repeating what she had done during the quest for the plague antidote seemed pointless, and yet the thought of leaving her family behind was incredibly unfair. She stopped when snow was brushing at her all around. She dropped to her knees, but continued to breathe. She didn't want to die standing up, like everyone else. Her death would be remembered with everyone in the Ice Age...if they all survived, that is. "Lapblood, no! I'm not letting you almost die again!" yelled Luxa, running out and preparing to drag the rat. "No. Don't you see? All too much. Just like I told Gregor. Just let me die."

"No! You fought for my life, and almost died doing it, and you're still acting like a complete nincompoop!" Howard scolded her, close behind Luxa. "Swordneck is dead! We're not letting you die too!" Luxa returned. "Well, what if that's the point, huh? What about that? Maybe I just want to see Swordneck again. And Mange? Tell me, don't you want me to be happy?" The two underlanders were silent. They didn't know how to argue with that. Lapblood closed her eyes and tried to remember who she would see again. Suddenly Mange seemed to talk straight to her. "You're going to die an old lady, maybe even in the war, but not now! Go into the igloo! Hurry!" The last word seemed to echo inside her brain. Lapblood began to scream and ran back into the igloo.

"What were you thinking?" Sarah asked, boiling with anger. Lapblood looked down at the floor and kicked a loose rock outside. "I don't know. I just wanted to see all my dead loved ones again." Beetee glared at the rock the rat had thrown, then sighed. "I understand, Lapblood. I have a lot of dead loved ones too. Blight? Boggs? Finnick? Prim? All of them. Too many to name. Believe me, The Hunger Games is not a joyride. Even though I've won it three times, I still don't know all the tricks." Lapblood sighed along with the old man. "Well, as long as we've got a place to hide we should be good, as far as our troubles go," Manny said. Everyone nodded, then tried to get some sleep.

**AR: **Beginnings are great. Committing suicide, blech. Reviews from KaylaDestroyer, yay! Read fast, Ms. Stroyer! Read fast!


	2. The Electroclan

2. The Electroclan

Lapblood was still trying to get over what she had imagined Mange saying when she heard a loud thump, and her eyes fluttered open like a hummingbird's wings quickly riding the wind. Manny and all the others seemed to be completely asleep, obviously not hearing the loud rock-hard sound. She then looked around, slowly studying her surroundings, then remembering she was in an igloo. She sighed and saw her breath; she sighed again just for the fun of it. They needed a laugh these days.

Finally the rat started walking outside to see what the ruckus was. The blizzard had ended, as she soon realized, so she could continue walking without freezing to death first. She shivered as she glanced around, looking for any sign of attack. Finally after looking around so much, she saw at least twenty people standing in front of her. She froze in fear, and walked backwards slowly and cowardly. "Giant rat, there is nothing to fear, I promise this," a boy with light brown hair told her, "Hi. I am Michael Vey."

* * *

Now, where did we leave our little Scrat friend? Ah, yes. He has just read the third prophecy. Here we go, just getting into focus...give me a second, and..done.

Sitting on Becker's body, he kept reading and rereading and rereading again the couplet that stood in front of him, on the acorn. "Congratulations, you have found me. The third nut hangs in a Christmas tree." What Christmas tree? Come to think of it, they didn't even _celebrate _Christmas, let alone have a whole tree for it. It didn't make sense at all, but he had to find the acorn to, hopefully, bring Manny back to life. He didn't know for sure if he was dead, but he didn't want to take any chances. He read the couplet one last time.

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE FOUND ME  
THE THIRD NUT HANGS IN A CHRISTMAS TREE

Suddenly his ears perked up and he started running towards the Ice Age.

* * *

Soon enough, all of the people introduced themselves. There names were: Michael, Taylor, Ostin, McKenna, Abigail, Grace, Zeus, Ian, Jack, Wade, Mitchell, Percy, Annabeth, Bilbo, Gandalf, and Zia. So sixteen. Four more than expected. Lapblood immediately turned when she heard a mammoth stomping out of the igloo. It was Ellie. "Lapblood! What are you doing out here so..." she was about to say 'late' when she noticed the sixteen people looking back at her. "What? No! The prophecy only called for twelve!"

Gandalf walked up to the mammoth, and kissed her knee. "Forgive us, for we do not know of the, what you call, prophecy. It just came to us as a short nursery rhyme. The dwarves and I sang it all the time. I am Gandalf, m'lady. And you are?" Ellie was slightly taken aback by this, but took the wizard's hand. "Ellie. How do you do?" "Just fine, madam. Just fine." The other fifteen introduced themselves again, then waited for a reply. "Well, sorry, I don't think there will be enough space in this small igloo for _all _of you, but make yourselves at home, I guess." They all walked in without another sound.

"So, um, I'm sorry, but the rest are sleeping so if you could try to make as little sound as possible that would be fantastic," Lapblood whispered. Ostin nodded and silently created a small bed out of snow. "I can manage without worry," he replied. "I figure a four by three bed would be good for me." Ian and Zia nodded and made their beds as well. There was now barely enough room to walk through. Lapblood smiled at their make-do and sat down in the snow, watching Ostin brush some of the white powder off his back.

The next morning everyone was tired as they got up. It seemed as though they had been rained on. That was because some of the snow had melted. All of the questers got up, made a quick introduction, and began to talk. Sarah quickly grabbed Manny and Ostin with a worried look on her face and pulled them over to where one of the walls used to be. "Ostin, you've got brains, right?" The boy nodded. "There was a prophecy line that said 'one shall be trapped in a thing that never was'. I suppose I am that person, but I don't know why. Do you have any idea, Ostin?" The brainiac grew a dim look on his face. "I think it means that whatever you were trapped in hasn't been invented yet. I'm afraid you're stuck here for a while.

**AR: **Why is this chapter called "the Electroclan"? It's just that the sixteen people made a group and named it as so. Sorry I never mentioned it, I just couldn't fit it in. :-P


	3. Making Sparks Fly

3. Making Sparks Fly

**Sarah's POV**

Life sucks. I've just decided that. I've been through worse stuff, though. Werewolves, mummies, mind-controlling donuts (don't ask), and yet nothing could have prepared me for the Levarnite thing. Being stuck here forever, I just couldn't believe it. But, Ostin's IQ was high above average, so I guess I had to. Michael Vey seemed like a nice guy...maybe he's my age. I wouldn't suck his blood if I had the chance. [Yes, Manny, I'm quite serious.] But it seems like he's taken. I'll take that Taylor gal' down any day. In fact, it could just be today. Fight!

* * *

Taylor was having a rough time adjusting to the new scenery. She used to be a cheerleader, and sometimes that perks. Pyramids are the best way to flip a high lever six feet up. The rest, though, were moving in quite easily. When she finally made a bed in the grass, she looked up and saw Sarah the vampire charging at her. "Whoa, Sarah! What the hell are you doing?" Michael Vey yelled, but the dark haired vampire did not stop. Instead she got a yard away from her when she stopped abruptly. She looked around, and asked, "What was I doing?"

"You were coming to tell me that you thought I looked very pretty, and that you would never fight me." Sarah blinked a couple times, smiled, and nodded. "I guess you're right." She then walked away. "Nice one!" Michael told her, high-fiving her. When you're a vampire, things don't always go the way expected.

* * *

**Jack's POV**

Slow down!  
You're gonna crash  
Baby you were screaming it's a blast, blast, blast  
Look out babe you got your blinders on  
Everybody's looking for a way to get real gone  
Real gone

I love having an iPod. [Well, Sid, I would love to explain what an iPod is, but I bet I can say it in seven words. 'Stay away from my iPod or die'. Hmph. I showed him. Then I walked away like a boss. That thing Taylor did to Sarah was pretty cool, but what can I say? That vampire is _hot_! I should make sparks fly.

**AR: **Just another one of those short chapters. I just have to fill in the story. Well, see ya! I guess.


	4. Lake Baudelaire

4. Lake Baudelaire

Now the questers had a lot of people with them, and some not even people. Some wizards, some animals, some hobbits, and some glows. But they were all together, and that was all that really mattered then. That all the questers were together. They needed something to celebrate the group for. Manny looked outside, looking at the scenery, finding something to do. He glanced over at a frozen lake, the only thing frozen anymore. "Hey, guys? What say we go ice skating at Lake Baudelaire? To take our minds off it? Everyone looked at everyone, then Ellie nodded.

* * *

Scrat was not too far from Lake Baudelaire either. He knew where to find a Christmas tree. He knew that half a mile east off the lake would be a forest. A Christmas tree forest. With Christmas trees, if you hadn't noticed. One of the trees in that small forest had to have a nut. He was correct. The certain tree was glowing, but it was at least thirty yards up. It shouldn't have been too hard. He had practiced climbing, and he was holding onto the nut, falling in no time. He cracked open the nut and read what it said.

YET ANOTHER GENIUS, SQUIRREL AND RAT  
THE LAST ONE IS HIDDEN UNDERNEATH THE BAT

* * *

They had all started skating. It was very fun, Lake Baudelaire. Probably because it wasn't a grim day. No one had died yet that day, luckily enough. It was about 9 in the morning (remember, Lapblood tried to commit suicide at about five in the morning), and it looked wet enough. Zeus, one of the glows, looked worriedly at the ice, knowing of the unfortunate events that would happen if he fell. Water was his weakness, you see. But that story is for later on, and you must read to find out what will happen.

Anyway, pretty soon they were all on the ice, skating around a circle in the middle that had many cracks in it. Zeus was actually having fun, even for his big fear of water. He had killed his parents by jumping in a swimming pool, on accident of course, but that didn't stop him. He started twirling like nobody's attention when he heard Michael Vey's voice from behind him. "Zeus, no!" But it was too late. He had started skating across the cracking circle, and immediately fell. There was a big explosion, and when it cleared up there was nothing but smoke and the glow slowly dying.

Julien hopped onto Hera and commanded, "Go down! Hurry! You know you love children!" The bat nodded. It was a curse; she had to love children, and she couldn't let them die. She went down headfirst with a breath full of air, with Julien still on her back, holding on tight. She looked around for Zeus, and locked eyes with him a few seconds later. She swam down farther and tried to grab Zeus with her claw. He was heavy at first, but she managed to carry him. She was two feet to the hole when she suddenly went cross eyed. Julien knocked on her head, which only dropped her down farther. Julien started to loose breath as well, and as they hit the ground, left to right Julien, Hera, and Zeus, hit the ground. Right where Hera landed was a large nut. The water went red, and they all stared up at the ice.

In other words, they never came back up again.

**AR: **I am starting to get the feeling that KaylaDestroyer is the only one reading these stories. If this is true, find more fans, please! Thanks! XD


	5. Torstyn's Tattoo

5. Torstyn's Tattoo

Hatch walked into where all his glows lurked and called Tara, Torstyn, and Kylee up at his front office.

They took about three minutes, but they came to his side.

He shapeshifted into Jesse and smiled down at Tara.

"Friends, look at this," he said, opening his locket and popping out Buck.

"This is Buck, the weasel. Torstyn, I want you to give this little guy the blue bolt."

Buck screamed.

"Little guy?

I can chop you all to pieces if you're not careful with your bloody words, cousin!"

Hatch frowned and handed Buck to his minion.

Torstyn smiled and pulsed.

Pretty soon, on the weasel's stomach was a small blue bolt tattoo.

"Once this mark disappears, you will die.

Understand?

Once this mark disappears, you will die."

**AR: **I just didn't have a lot to say. Don't judge me. Why did I call this book the blue bolt? Only because of the electricity and stuff. I'll explain it more in the next book.


End file.
